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Josiah Queen Is Going On His First Big Headline Tour!!

We got some exciting stuff on Artist News Day this week! Let’s get into all the news:

Josiah Queen is taking his sophomore #1 album, Mt. Zion, on tour this Spring 2026, and you can catch him stopping by in Columbus! He’s bringing his friends Jervis Campbell and Gable Price with, who appear on his Mt. Zion album!

This concert will be taking place in an outdoor venue, KEMBA LIVE!. If you want to be a part of this night of worship, praise, folk, and joyful music, ticket information is available HERE!

We’ve gotten the pleasure to see Zach Williams on the charts with his title track to his new album, Jesus Loves! We’re gonna get to see this full album release next Friday, September 19th!

With a full 12 songs on this record, Zach Williams strongly believes in these songs, saying, “I’ve always believed in writing songs for real people who are going through real things.” More information about what Zach Williams is saying about his new album is found HERE!

Forrest Frank has come out with the deluxe version of his album Child Of God II! This album features artists we love on WNZR- Crowder, Cory Asbury, even The Figs, who we here on the song Lemonade!

More information about this album can be found HERE!

We’re happy to see that bodie released his debut album called No Skips! This album includes his hit Whisper & The Wind, which, at one point, made it on The NZ Top 10!

More information about this album can be found HERE!

We took some lyrics from a song we listened to during The Afternoon Drive to play Song Poetry! Here were this week’s lyrics:

Every time I call You, Jesus
I call You, I call You Savior
Worthy of glory forever
Something comes out of the grave
Every time I call Your Name

Today’s Song Poetry song was I Know A Name from Elevation Worship and Brandon Lake!

Congratulations to Kari from Newark for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for some fun facts on Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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God’s Love Will ALWAYS Be Powerful!!

We love getting to start our week off with some Monday Motivation for you! We took a look at some encouraging and uplifting songs during The Afternoon Drive! Here’s what we talked about:

We dove in deeper to Megan Wood’s “The Truth” and talked about how our identity is important. Finding ourselves and our identity is important, but many people struggle with insecurities. When you feel unaccepted there is someone that will accept your flaws and all. And Knowing God’s love and Identity in Christ. Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)

“The Truth” by Megan Woods lyric video

We also talked about TobyMac’s song “Speak Life” for Monday Motivation!

It doesn’t matter who you are, how young or old you are, you have the power to make a powerful difference in someone’s life. By simply speaking life to someone, you could be the brightest light to someone’s day and be a part of changing the trajectory of their day! Simply by smiling to someone in passing and saying “hi” could be the biggest difference in someone’s life!

“Speak Life” – TobyMac Music Video

Here is your Verse Of The Week on WNZR!

John 5:14 (NIV)- “Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘see, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.'”

Big Blue stopped at the Fredericktown tomato show September 3rd through the 6th – 

Congratulations to our adult prize winners! Satarah Durbin and Robert VanRiper from Mount Vernon. Thursday’s Winners: Cheryl White of Fredericktown and Lori Wicker of Mount Vernon. Friday’s Winners: Tammy Fraizer and Sharon Farrell from Fredericktown. Saturday’s Winners: Madalyn Hartley of Fredericktown and Larry Styers of Mount Vernon. The winner’s won a prize basket that was valued at $80!

Congratulations to our KIDS Prize Basket Winners! Wednesday’s Winner: Tonya Miller of Fredericktown. Thursday’s Winner: Konner. May from Fredericktown. Friday’s Winner: Graham Dugan of Fredericktown. Saturday’s Winner: Jackson Varner of Mount Vernon. Each basket was valued at $45!
We also gave away an AWESOME student prize backpack for ages 11 – 17 courtesy of WNZR and the Office of Admissions at MVNU. 
Congratulations to our winner – Kaley Dugan of Fredericktown. Kaley won a basket valued at over $225 that had:
many MVNU and WNZR goodies, plus TWO tickets to Sonfest 2025 at MVNU!

For our Mystery Monday, we had another game of Family Feud! Unfortunately it was a stumper, come back next Monday for a chance to win TWO $5 gift cards for Watts restaurant in Utica. Here was our prompt:

Name a reason people wake up in the middle of the night.

Thank you so much for listening!

-Gabriella and Ethan

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NZ Top 10 for 9/5/2025

We have the first NZ Top 10 list for September, and we have some new music to look at! Let’s check out this week’s top 10 countdown:

10. Tauren Wells – Let The Church Sing
9. Jon Reddick – No Fear
8. Josiah Queen f/Brandon Lake – Can’t Steal My Joy
7. Micah Tyler – God Did It
6. MercyMe – Oh Death (former #1)
5. Emerson Day – Get Behind Me
4. Zach Williams – Jesus Loves
3. Forrest Frank – Your Way’s Better
2. Elevation Worship f/Brandon Lake – I Know A Name
1. Phil Wickham – What An Awesome God (5th week at #1)

New Music This Week:

Colton Dixon – The Love I Have For You

Rend Collective – Fight Of My Life

Thank you so much for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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Prayer Is POWERFUL!

Today on Praise Thursday, we were on the road with Big Blue at the Fredericktown Tomato Show! Stay up-to-date with the Fredericktown Tomato Show and upcoming events on our website, at wnzr.fm!

It’s Praise Thursday! Today we read a devotional from Our Daily Bread Devotionals about prayer!

Prayer is the biggest thing we can do for someone. Whether you feel the impact or not, our prayer makes a difference. Especially when multiple people are praying for you!

We also talked about how it’s okay to open up about your struggles with godly people you trust that will lift you up and support you! That is such a huge step in conquering whatever you’re going through!

Read more about this devotional by clicking HERE!

We played a 20 second song clip from a song we listened to on The Afternoon Drive!

This week’s Name That Tune song was “Made For More” from Josh Baldwin and Jenn Johnson!

Congratulations to Gina from Warsaw for calling in and figuring out the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for New Music Friday and this week’s countdown of The NZ Top 10!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Gabriella and Ethan

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On the Road again!

Remember that we are On The Road With Big Blue today, tomorrow and Friday at the 48th Fredericktown Tomato Show. Join Marcy and the Big Blue Crew for live updates!

Find out more by clicking here!

Did you know that today is National Skyscraper Day? From DaysoftheYear.com:

It celebrates architects who commit a dream to paper and the construction crews that make it reality.

The day is celebrated on September 3 each year, as this is the anniversary of the birth of Louis H. Sullivan, the American architect who was influential in the world of building tall buildings and was even called the “father of skyscrapers”.

Although the United States was the place where the tallest buildings started in cities like Chicago and New York, others around the world have taken up the design and building of these architectural wonders.

In fact, today’s tallest building in the world, with 163 floors, is called the Burj Khalifa and is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

  1. I was born on September 3, 1942, in Lima, Ohio, and later moved with my family to California.
  2. I co-founded The Beach Boys in 1961 with Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, and Mike Love.
  3. I left the band temporarily to attend dental school but soon returned to the group full-time.
  4. I often sang lead on songs such as the 1965 #1 hit, “Help Me, Rhonda.”
  5. I also released a 2010 solo album, A Postcard from California.

I am… Al Jardine!

Congratulations to Bonnie from Mount Vernon for calling in and correctly guessing who this was, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in on Thursday for Praise Thursday, and a game of Name That Tune!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe, Gabriella, and Ethan

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CeCe Winans Wins Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year!

This Artist News Day is packed with award winners, a new album, and artist interactions! Let’s get into the news!

This past weekend, the queen of gospel music, CeCe Winans, had the honor of receiving two Stellar Awards, the Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year award and the Albertina Walker Female Artist Of The Year award!

CeCe is known for her big gospel hits like “That’s My King” (Which is up for a GMA Dove Award), “Come Jesus Come”, and of course, her rendition of “Goodness Of God”!

After the results of the Stellar Gospel Music Awards, we’re excited to see what happens with the GMA Dove Awards coming up in October! You can stay up to date with the Dove Awards by clicking HERE!

We have loved the music Phil Wickham has been bringing us, including his hits “The King Is In The Room” and his current #1 song “What An Awesome God”! These songs have been a great preview as to what we’re going to see on his upcoming album, which is called Song Of The Saints!

This new album from Phil is coming out next Friday, September 12, featuring the two hits previously mentioned, alongside songs he has loved performing live during the Summer Worship Nights tours this past summer!

You can learn more about this album on Phil’s website by clicking HERE!

Don’t miss out on our posts on Facebook, Instagram, and X! Not even Tauren Wells is missing out on our posts there!

Every week, we post Tunesday Tuesday on our social media, (You can follow us @WNZR_90.9FM) and this week’s Tune was Tauren Wells’ song “Let The Church Sing”. We were so excited to see Tauren comment on the post saying “It’s the parenthesis for me 😂”.

Join Tauren Wells and follow us on social media! Just click on the post and you can follow our page!

We had a throwback song for our Song Poetry this week! Here were this week’s lyrics:

Staring at a stop sign
Watching people drive by
T. Mac on the radio

Got so much on your mind
Nothing’s really going right
Looking for a ray of hope

This week’s song poetry lyrics are from the song Overcomer by the late Mandisa!

Congratulations to Erica from Howard for being the first to call in and guess the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Gabriella joins the team!

Today we welcome Gabriella Stanley to the Afternoon Drive team! Here are a few fun facts about her:

  • sophomore from West Jefferson, Ohio
  • Communication and Media major
  • middle daughter of 3 children (just like Joe)
  • will coach 12-U girls’ volleyball in Columbus starting in October
  • favorite color: purple
  • loves OSU football and the Indianapolis Colts (inspired by the TV show ‘The Middle’)
  • favorite food: meat loaf

Joe’s Monday Motivation today is Hawk Nelson and ‘Diamonds.’ Check out the lyric video!

Today’s Monday Motivation from Gabriella comes from Brandon Heath and the song ‘He Does.’

Name two things that get passed around.

  1. Food (40 votes)
  2. Gossip (25)
  3. A ball (15)
  4. A note (10)
  5. A remote (10)

Congratulations to David of Fredericktown who guessed the top two answers and wins the $5 gift card to Watt’s Restaurant in Utica.

Thanks for listening!
– Gabriella and Joe

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NZ Top 10 for 8/29/2025

We have new music and a new top 10 list! Here is this week’s countdown:

10. Tauren Wells – Let The Church Sing
9. Josiah Queen f/Brandon Lake – Can’t Steal My Joy
8. Jon Reddick – No Fear
7. Emerson Day – Get Behind Me
6. Zach Williams – Jesus Loves
5. Micah Tyler – God Did It
4. MercyMe – Oh Death (former #1)
3. Forrest Frank – Your Way’s Better
2. Elevation Worship f/Brandon Lake – I Know A Name
1. Phil Wickham – What An Awesome God (4th week at #1)

New Music This Week:

TobyMac – Heaven On My Mind

Thank you so much for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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An Eternal Hope And Joy!

We took some moments to take a step back and breathe for Praise Thursday on The Afternoon Drive. We read devotionals from Our Daily Bread Ministries!

Here is the devotional we read and talked about today!

The author of the devo we read today talked about how she and her friends tried to go to a restaurant, but had to go back because it was full. Disappointments like that will happen in this life, but even in situations when we feel upset or down, we can take heart knowing that in the end, it is just temporary. As believers and followers of Jesus and our sights set on Heaven, we can sit on the edge of our seat every day, awaiting what God has for us in His plan, and not worry if Heaven will be too full for us. There is room for everyone who says yes to Jesus!

In Revelation 21:2, John saw “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem” which shone of God’s glory. As believers and followers of Jesus, we know that in “the new Jerusalem”, there will be no more fear, sorrow, pain, or sin! Our hope is sealed in the fact that Jesus paid our debts and sins on the cross once and for all, and that His resurrection from death shows that we are not in our sins and that are hope is not empty! In the end, Jesus has already won!

You can read more about the devo we read today by clicking HERE!

Today we played a 20 second clip of a song we listened to on The Afternoon Drive for Name That Tune!

This Week’s Name That Tune song was “If I Got Jesus” from Ben Fuller!

Congratulations to Chris from Gambier for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow on Friday as we check out a new song being introduced to WNZR and this week’s countdown for The NZ Top 10!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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